Re: [Tails-l10n] Dropping CSS formating for GUI documentatio…

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Author: sajolida
Date:  
To: emma peel, Tails localization discussion, Cody Brownstein
Subject: Re: [Tails-l10n] Dropping CSS formating for GUI documentation
emma peel:
> sajolida:
>
>> Emma: How frequently do you see translators mess up with the HTML in
>> strings on Weblate?
>
> VERY often


Thanks for the info!

> - For me it is hard to read the lists, specially the differences when only one line changes in a long list, i.e.
> https://translate.tails.boum.org/translate/tails/license/es/?type=fuzzy
> The lists can be made fuzzy adding a space before in each line.


I see... Then it would be super helpful for me if translators would let
me know when such things happen. Because I can probably split them into
different PO strings.

See what I did in d5ad0e8a9a and 3ae262172d.

Do you want me to break more such lists?

> - Also sometimes in <pres>:
> https://translate.tails.boum.org/translate/tails/finances/es/?type=fuzzy
> too big!


I see... But for <pre> I don't think I can split the PO strings.

Note that in both cases, I wonder why these pages are under /doc and I'm
not sure they are worth translating...

> I keep answering inline:
>
>>> On 09/09/2018 03:31 PM, sajolida wrote:
>>> [...]>
>>>> Only some days ago did I realize that this might be a real pain for
>>>> translators to translate and maintain. Of course, you've been dealing
>>>> with that for years and already know how to do it well, but what about
>>>> newer translators and future teams?
>>>>
>>>> I haven't done much translations myself and I've never used Weblate, so
>>>> I'd like to know how much of a relief it would be if we stopped writing
>>>> this way and used Markdown instead.
>
> - Weblate has some XMl validation tests, but they don't work with Markdown. https://translate.tails.boum.org/checks/?project=tails (all fixed currently) so currently we make some mistakes when translating that break the page, like
> translating [[link]] by [[somenewwordnotarealpage]] or [[link] without the right amount of [.


Ok. I think I discussed this with Hans-Christoph Steiner in Mexico and I
asked him to check with the Weblate devs if it would be possible to add
validation tests for Markdown.

>>> I have some experience with html, so for me its not that hard to parse
>>> those, but i can see how it might lead to confusion and/or mistakes and
>>> changing it to pure markdown would definitly make it easier to read. How
>>> hard it is also depends on the strings before and after the
>>> application-span.
>
> Many translators translate class names, as in <div class='next'> becomes <div class='prochaine'>


So limiting the number of CSS classes to the bare minimum would help.

>>> I think that changing it to pure markdown would definitly be an improvement.
>
> I am not so sure about that, I think it is important to add comments and make it as simple as possible!


I don't understand this...

I mean writing:

    **Applications ▸ Tails ▸ Configure persistent storage**


Instead of:

    <span class="guimenu">Applications</span>&nbsp;▸
      <span class="guisubmenu">Tails</span>&nbsp;▸
      <span class="guimenuitem">Configure persistent storage</span>
    </span>


But we would still be able to add HTML comments in the Markdown whenever
needed.

>>>> - Hearing from how do this goes for the less technical of our
>>>> translators. Say someone who doesn't otherwise know HTML. How frequent
>>>> is it for newer translators to made mistakes on these?
>
> Very frequent


Thanks, that's what I wanted to know.

>>>> - Whether you think that Markdown instead of HTML would lower the error
>>>> rates. Because I still want application names to display in italic :)
>
> I am not so sure about this. I think html gets checked by weblate better.


Ahh... Then I'm not sure about my plan anymore.

To rephrase my question, do you think it would be better for translators
(and Weblate) to write:

    **Applications ▸ Tails ▸ Configure persistent storage**


Instead of:

    <span class="guimenu">Applications</span>&nbsp;▸
      <span class="guisubmenu">Tails</span>&nbsp;▸
      <span class="guimenuitem">Configure persistent storage</span>
    </span>


?

If we're unsure, shall we keep writing the second way?

(Meta: I created #16221 to track this discussion.)

--
sajolida